This invention pertains to fill valves, and particularly those of the type wherein it is desired to have intimate intermixing of two gaseous fluids.
In the inflatable article field, it is often times desirable to be able to inflate the inflatable articles with lighter than air gas, such as helium. However, the high cost of helium at present standards is such that to inflate an inflatable article entirely with helium becomes somewhat costly.
It becomes, therefore, necessary to be able to intermix helium with a less expensive gas, such as for example, air, but not at the point of the filling of the cylinders of gas since, to fill a cylinder with a combination of helium and air, is somewhat costly and is usually available in scientific grades only, which would not produce the decrease in costs that the present invention seeks.
Therefore, it becomes imperative, as for example, for low cost operations of filling inflatable articles such as balloons, to have ready access to ambient atmosphere or air in order to reduce the amount of helium that would otherwise be necessary to properly inflate the balloons. Thus, the fill valve of the invention is adapted to be connected to a source of superatmosphere helium or similar such gas, and actuated in a manner that surrounding atmosphere or ambient gas is drawn into the fill valve and intimately mixed with the helium at the time of filling of the inflatable article or balloon.
Thus, with the fill valve of the present invention, a first pressurized fluid being fed into the fill valve actuates a closure member thereby opening an orifice to the ambient air which is used to draw air into the fill valve by reason of its venturi interior configuration so that an intermixing of helium and air is obtained for filling an inflatable article.
The fill valve of the invention is provided with a metering means of a high degree of selectivity so that the amount of ambient atmosphere, or second fluid, being drawn into the fill valve, is selectively metered to fulfill a myriad of needs.
Thus, the invention is directed to a fill valve that permits lower cost inflating of inflatable articles. The prior art, as far as is known, has not suggested the fill valve of the present invention wherein a first pressurized fluid, such as helium, is directed through the fill valve which has a venturi configuration, to draw surrounding ambient air thereinto so that an inflatable article with which the fill valve is associated, may be inflated with a combination of pressurized gas and ambient atmosphere so as to reduce the overall cost involved in the inflating process.